Celts descended from Spanish fishermen, study finds

Celts descended from Spanish fishermen, study finds

www.independent.co.uk

A team from Oxford University has discovered that the Celts, Britain's indigenous people, are descended from a tribe of Iberian fishermen who crossed the Bay of Biscay 6,000 years ago. DNA analysis reveals they have an almost identical genetic "fingerprint" to the inhabitants of coastal regions of Spain, whose own ancestors migrated north between 4,000 and 5,000BC.

(visit the link for the full news article)

It's hardly 'news' to a lot of people as I'm sure many here are familiar with this particular take on British heritage and genetics.

I like Sykes' work purely because it undermines much of the romanticism attached to the modern myth of 'Celticness' which seems to be so divisive in so many areas, whether it's politics, mainstream religion, pagan religions (a particular bugbear) as well as helping compounding some Northern American attitudes towards 'the evil English oppressors!'

I'll be interested in seeing his new DNA map.

www.independent.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

The first thing that springs to my mind about this is the well known Spanish Armada introduction of Spanish genes into the Irish gene pool, the source of the so called ‘black Irish’. Do you know of some way that those conducting the tests could steer their way around such an occurrence? Then there’s the Moorish invasion of Spain to deal with. I would think that knowing how far back a genetic marker was introduced would be problematic. Interesting how war has made for genetic diversity, huh?

I guess this explains why the Brits like to vacation in Spain.

It's been known for some time that Celtic tribes migrated to the Spanish Coast near Bilbao etc from Britain a few thousand years back. Also the same applies to the people of Brittany in France, as Brittany means "Little Britain".

They share the same Brythionic langauge as the ancient Celts, alive today in the Cornish and Welsh languages.

I am not so convinced that this study doesn't show that, instead of a reverse of the situation.

EDIT: The migration to Spain, as opposed to this migration from, stands to reason better. The Celts came from Central and eastern europe, migrated westward and settled in the UK. Further migrations then continued the westwards spread down to Spain. It doesn't make sense for them to go right past Britain and then migrate back again.

[edit on 29/11/08 by stumason]

What is odd is the genetic link between the pre-Celts and the Australian Aborigines.

It seems that is one... I read about it years ago and it shows up often enough in their children who often have blonde hair and blue eyes... both of which darken to black as they age.

I read somewhere that many scots (20%) are of Jewish descent from recent DNA research. It's just possible that the phoenician traders and settlers in Spain became the Celts? Not sure how this fits in with the timeline.

reply to post by ufoorbhunter


No. Phoenecians were around at the same time as the original Celtic migrations from the East and are two seperate groups, with different languages and cultures.

reply to post by stumason

The Phoenicians traded with the west of Britain and Ireland as that's where their ships were taken from Spain by the currents. So we have the Celts and the Phoenicians both based in Spain and both visiting Britain for commerce. Sounds like one and the same to me, or very related?

Im Scottish now and humans are African originally....everything else is moot,but interesting anyhoo.I heard there was similiarities found in Ireland to sumeria...but that might be alot of crap.

reply to post by ufoorbhunter


I know Phoenicians came to Britain, but when the two cultures existed during the same period and had seperate languages and religions, you cannot honestly join the two into one big group? The Phoenicians had their base in and around Canaan, in the ME. They may have traded as far north as Britain and Holland, but that was just trade. There is no evidence they settled.

Celts are Celts and Phoenicians are Phoenicians.

EDIT: Here is a handy, easy to digest WIKI page

[edit on 29/11/08 by stumason]

Theres a much hgher amount of RH- bloodtypes in spain, but I guess they don't always transfuse there blood at birth like they do in the UK.

I'm sure freemasons know alot about bloodtypes and gene lines as they are facinated with the subject, but to what ends, I mean there god is satan and they follow similer understandings as the illuminati and nazi do (O_O).


[edit on 29/11/2008 by Ishma]

Atila the Hun and his army of 800,000 men strong invaded Germany and was part of the Hunic Empire for a while. Atila the Hun and his men were Mongols and they pilaged and raped, and destroyed German cities like Cologne, Worms as such. This does not mean Germans are descendants of the Mongols. Same applies to Spain.You can not say that Spaniards are descendant of the Moors just because a few Arabs entered Spain back in 711 A.D. First, geneticaly speaking there is no evidence genetically that there was a major invasion of Spain. Second, there was 4 major ethnic groups (The Celts, the Iberians (21 groups overall), the Romans and their descendants and the Visigoths (the barbarians 360,000 overall took Spain in 470 after the collapse of the Roman Empire).These are 4 of the most powerfull tribes in Europe).The question is "how did the Arabs overpower all four powers? The Answer is THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO WAY. Now it two armies to stop atila the Hun in Champaign, the Romans and the Visigoths.Don't you think a colaboration like this one could also be obtained by Spain's 4 powerful communities.

I am not sure how valuable this study is as it does not explain the common language ancestor of all the "celts". I think language shows just as much where a people originally harks from.